Saturday, December 11, 2010

A few Glimpses of Tasmania - Forests and mountains

Here's why Tasmanians get cranky about people wanting to woodchip our forests. Tasmania has one of the few pieces of temperate rainforest left in the world and it contains many rare animals and plants that do not exist anywhere else.

This is a leatherwood tree which makes the most beautiful honey

Pencil pinesand cushion plants, Central Highlands

Pencil pines are an ancient species and these are hundreds of years old. Cushion plants which are individual small plants growing together like coral take almost as long to grow too.

Pandani - these date from Gondwana times, when Australia was joined to Antarctica

Pool at the top of a waterfall, Central Highlands

Looking over the top

Another One

The ferns and Fungi are interesting too

And mosses

Deciduous Beeches growing here around Crater Lake (actually a cirque carved by ice not a dead volcano) are not found anywhere else in Australia, but South America and South Africa have similar species from the same period. They look absolutely stunning in Autumn when they turn glowing orange

We also have the Tasmanian Blue Gum which competes with the California Redwood in height( This is my son's picture taken on an iphone)

* Some of you may have seen some of these photos beforeas I took then during the Cradle Mountain walk, but you don't have to go far out of the city to see this kind of scenery. Promise I'll get out soon and take some new ones!!!